A Nice Place, Once We Got Here

We are now spending 5 nights at Big Ridge State Park in Tennessee. This is a change from our original reservation, which was at Douglas Dam Tailwater Campground. That campground, just below the Douglas Dam on the French Broad River, was closed due to the recent flooding from Hurricane Helene. Big Ridge sounded like a safer bet.

Apple Maps took us up State Route 61 for our final leg of the journey. I noticed it had some disconcerting squiggles as we got closer. I checked the park website for directions and they had a link to Google Maps which showed the same route, so we took it.

Well, those squiggles turned out to be 10 mph hair pin turns that we needed two lanes to negotiate with the trailer. They were so tight that Bud wanted to go back and take pictures. This is not the tightest one, but it is one where Bud was able to drop me off so I could film him coming back through the turn.

Even getting the video was difficult. Coming back from the park we mistakenly got on the truck detour around the curvy section (we didn’t see that the way we came in). We then ended up on this road, Ousley Gap Road, trying to get back to RT 61. Thank goodness we weren’t pulling the trailer.

When we first got to the park I asked at the office if there was a better way out. “Which way did you come in?” the woman asked, “Did you turn right or left off 61 onto the park road?” I said right and the three people in the office all laughed. Obviously that is not the best way to come. Getting backed into our site was no picnic, either. Notice the drop off and fence along the narrow park road, just where Bud would swing the front of the pickup wide to back in. But Bud made it and now we are here and we don’t have to go back that road.

It turns out that this park is on Norris Lake, formed by a dam on the Clinch River; the first dam the Tennessee Valley Authority built back in the 1930’s. But this river and lake were not affected by the flooding.

Matey and I have had some lovely morning walks here.

We walked over to the “old grist mill” which turns out to be a 1968 reconstruction.

There is also a pretty decent disc golf course nearby.

It’s all wooded, but the fairways aren’t too tight and the understory is open enough that you can find your disc if it does go astray.

It’s also clearly marked between holes, so it’s easy to get around. We’ve played there twice.

And in the afternoons, when it warms up, Matey and I have a nice view sitting outside the trailer. No tent needed, no bugs. After all the trouble getting here I’m glad we have a few days to enjoy it!